PHILADELPHIA — The growing popularity of hybrid vehicles is a step toward cleaner air and less dependence on gasoline. But for rescuers at accident scenes, they represent a potential new danger: a network of high-voltage circuitry that may require some precise cutting to save a trapped victim. "You don't want to go crushing anything with hydraulic tools," said Samuel Caroluzzi, an assistant chief with the Norristown Fire Department outside Philadelphia. "It's enough to kill you from what they're telling us in training." Hybrids draw power from two sources, typically a gas or diesel engine combined with an electric motor. The battery powering the electric motor carries as much as 500 volts, more than 40 times the strength of a standard battery.

I read a similar story on CNN last night - When I mentioned at the hall about it and how the story said it was usually safer to just cut through the roof of hybrids, one of our TF's (Who's also an industrial electrician) said that you couldn't always be sure of even that, as the roof is often an easy path to run voltage cables from one end of the car to the other...

Hybrid cars are hot sellers for today's gas-conscious drivers. But for emergency workers who might have to rescue someone from a high-tech wreck, the vehicles may be literally too hot to handle.

The technology behind hybrids — cars that use both a gasoline engine and electric motor for propulsion — may save on fuel for the driver, but it could also put rescuers at risk of serious electrical shock.

"If you're walking up to a [hybrid] car that's laid up on its side, the last thing we're looking forward to is getting electrocuted" says Herbert Scott, chief of the Brinker Volunteer fire department in Silver Springs, Texas. "Without a doubt there will be a day where that will happen."

WINNIPEG, MB - Firefighters are being warned about the dangers presented by the new hybrid vehicles hitting the streets in Manitoba. Hybrid cars, such as the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight, use powerful batteries carrying as much as 500 volts of power. Conventional vehicles have 12-volt batteries. When a hybrid car gets into a collision, the more powerful batteries pose a larger risk to firefighters and paramedics.

Andy Burgess, assistant chief of the Winnipeg Fire and Paramedic Service, said emergency crews often have to cut away parts of cars to get at victims, and if they cut in the wrong place while a hybrid car is running, it could be deadly. "It could kill them if you short it out the wrong way and you absorb it in your body,"

EDMONTON, AB - Paramedic and volunteer firefighter Cris Turley conquered his fear this weekend about being called to a hybrid-car crash. The Viking emergency worker was initially trained to use rubber lineman gloves during such rescues to protect himself from electrocution. It didn't make him feel too secure. Hybrid-car batteries can pack as much power as 500 volts on top of the normal 12-volt battery used in regular cars. "The rumours were that you could have burns from battery acid, electrocution and fires," Turley said.